


In Search of Inspiration

by ChillyJackal



Series: Zootopia Oddities AU [3]
Category: Zootopia
Genre: Anthro, Gen, Horror, Ocelot - Freeform, Silver Fox, lovecraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-02
Updated: 2016-12-02
Packaged: 2018-09-03 20:06:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8728399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChillyJackal/pseuds/ChillyJackal
Summary: Patch and her friend decide to explore some old tunnels beneath the Nocturnal District to find inspiration for her next piece





	

"Alright Cass, you got the snacks?"

The silver fox stretched herself out lazily and looked over to her friend, who was busy shoving a number of supplies into her backpack.

"Yes Patch, I packed the snacks, this is only the tenth time you've asked."

The ocelot smiled as she zipped up her pack and looked back at her friend, who gave her a tired smile in return. They'd been planning this expedition for some time now, it was rare that Patch had ever allowed Cassandra to join her on an "Inspirational Journey", let alone asked her to come along out of nowhere. 

"I got the camera and pencils all packed too. Gonna get some real good stuff this time, got that good feeling."

Patch put on her own backpack and wandered to her paintings, admiring her older works before covering them up for the day. Cassandra was never a fan of Patch's "special" artwork, the twisted and warped subject matter wasn't her taste and the first time she saw them she had nightmares for a week. Still, Patch was her friend, and she was more than happy to help her do something she enjoyed.

"So I tell you about the skunk from the other day? Dude comes in saying he wants to see my stuff so I show him, then I show him the best stuff and he runs out of the house screaming like someone was after him."

Cassandra tried to hold in a giggle as Patch shook her head. 

"Man, some people right? No respect for real art if you ask me."

The ocelot burst into laughter as Patch sighed and gave her a little pat on the back.

"Yeah yeah, laugh it up Cass, I had to clean the hell out of the basement after he left, I think he sprayed down there."

Cassandra scrunched her nose a bit.

"Ew, really? That's nasty. You must've really scared him if he did that."

Patch grinned wide as she walked out of the store with Cassandra, locking up behind them and puffing out her chest a bit.

"What can I say? I have an impact on people I guess."

The trip from the Rainforest District to the Nocturnal was fairly uneventful, mostly idle banter about how the week had gone or recent events that had occurred.

"Didja hear Cass? Those old apartments in Sahara Square finally caved, big storm knocked 'em down the other night."

"Good, that place was a waste of space if you ask me. I'll never understand why they didn't just knock it down in the first place."

The cable car came to a stop at the edge of the Nocturnal District and the two predators hopped out, Patch taking out a map and wasting no time wandering from the station. Cassandra jogged behind her and kept a lookout for any bystanders the distracted fox might wander into, the last thing either pred needed was to bump into an elephant or something and end up in the hospital.

"Tunnel's just over here Cass. Hope you're ready, that's where I find some of the best stuff."

The fox stopped in front of what looked like an old long dried creek and pointed to a group of overgrown bushes at the very end. The bushes were covering an old drainage tunnel, something so completely mundane and average that Cassandra had to wonder exactly how her friend would find inspiration inside it.

"Uh Patch, you sure this is it?"

"Cass that's just the way in, what ya think I just sit in there and do drugs or something?"

Patch laughed and ran into the bushes, leaving Cassandra to ponder for a moment before scampering after her. The drainage tunnel was exactly what Cassandra expected, a small, damp, dark place where the noise of the Nocturnal District was drowned out by the sounds of dripping water and their own echoed breathing. As they walked down the wet tunnel Cassandra wondered why the creek outside was completely dry but the tunnel was so damp.

"There's tons of holes and stuff."

Her thoughts were interupted by Patch, as if she was reading her mind.

"Creek's dry because this tunnel is full of holes and damage. Any real water ends up soaking into the dirt and stuff, so the entrance is dry as a bone."

The ocelot supposed this made sense, but if that were the case wouldn't someone have reported this by now? What if there was a sudden flood? Wouldn't they need a drainage system to work properly? She sighed and decided thoughts like this were pointless, but she always did worry about the more pointless things. She stopped when she bumped into Patch's rump, the silver fox grunting a bit and fiddling with something in front of them.

"What are you doing?"

"Unlocking the gate. They made it to catch debris during floods and junk. I always lock it back up when I leave so they don't realize someone's been here, don't want them changing the lock or sealing the tunnel for good."

There was a click and a horribly loud screech as Patch pushed the rusting gate open.

"Aw yeah, open up for mommy."

They both laughed and continued down the tunnel when Cassandra suddenly spotted a faint light in the distance.

"Whoa, Patch...?"

"Yep I see it, we're almost there."

The pair carefully climbed out of the pipe and into a surprisingly large area, a network of tunnels made of stone bricks dripping with water. Cassandra stared in awe at the unusual architecture of this hidden place. 

"Patch...what is all this?"

"Old floodgate system or something. They built it forever ago but since they added all the new ones this place is just kinda sitting here getting wet."

Cassandra felt one of the walls and shivered, the stone had become slick and slippery with moisture, and the usual rough feeling of brickwork seemed to give way to a wet friction free surface. Along the walls and hanging from parts of the ceiling were weak, greenish lights that despite their age were still running somehow.

"Did they leave the power on down here in case of an emergency? It seems like a waste to have all this stuff just running like this."

Patch shrugged.

"More than likely there's so much power being sucked up by everywhere else that a little dinky place like this doesn't even register."

This seemed plausible enough, when you had machines controlling different environments all over the city an old floodgate system with barely functioning lights was probably the last thing to worry about.

"So, you get your inspiration here?"

The silver fox shook her head.

"Nah Cass, c'mon the place is deeper."

Cassandra pulled out her camera and took some photos of the floodgate tunnels before following after Patch again, taking a few more pictures of the architecture and soaked walls as her friend lead her deeper into the system, stopping at a tunnel that seemed different from the others.The bricks of the other tunnels were replaced by thicker, bigger stones that somehow seemed damper than the others, as if the stones themselves were constantly dripping with water. Cassandra tried to touch these new stones but found herself hesitating, something about them wasn't right. In the middle of the rocks was an equally old gate, with strange designs and pictures Cassandra had only ever seen on Patch's paintings. She decided to focus on the rocks for now though, she didn't want to bring up the paintings just yet.

"Hey Patch? These rocks seem really weird..."

"They're just wetter because we're really deep in the system Cass, chill out."

Cassandra bit her lip as her friend walked up to the entrance of the tunnel and opened the old gate, a rush of wet cold air went through the both of them, causing Cassandra to gasp and hold herself. 

"P-Patch...!"

"Old tunnels have cold air Cass, you wanna check out my special spot or not?"

She frowned and gulped down some air, pulling herself together and nodding. She wasn't going to let some weird anxiety ruin this special moment with her friend, she had been trusted to go to this place with her, a place no one else was allowed to go to, and she refused to let her down by running away like a big chicken.

"Alright, I'm ready."

Patch nodded and turned on a flashlight before going in, Cassandra following very closely behind her.The inside of the tunnel felt even worse than the entrance, the soaking wet stones gave Cassandra a feeling like she was walking through someone's innards, someone's very solid and cold innards. 

The cold was awful.

The damp, wet, cold feeling of the tunnel made Cassandra shiver and chatter her teeth a bit, she had to keep close to Patch if only because her friend seemed to be the only source of heat in the place. It was as if the darkness of the soaking stone hall was sucking in any warmth and replacing it with the freezing wetness.

Finally she could see some sort of exit in front of them, but she didn't feel relieved, she felt worse. A deep, long outgrown instinct in her body seemed to flare up, a warning that she needed to be careful, that she was in danger of something she couldn't even see.

"Alright Cass, check this place out."

Patch dropped out from the tunnel and into the room, Cassandra slowly followed her and felt a horrible sinking feeling in her stomach. The room was exactly like the tunnel, cold and wet, with the dripping of water and the warmth sucking darkness that had been tormenting her. Patch waved her flashlight around a bit to illuminate more of the room. It was full of different strange structures, like pillars and statues, all of them with the same symbols from the door and bizarre shapes Cassandra could just barely comprehend. The stone of the room was a nasty green shade, a shade that made the ocelot dizzy just looking at it.

"Patch what the hell is this? This place is making me sick..."

Patch was silent, Cassandra looked over at her and saw her sketching something down in her notebook. 

"What are you drawing?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm drawing you in the room dummy. More fun to draw you in here than just snap a dumb photo right?" 

Cassandra wasn't sure how to respond to this, so she pulled out her own flashlight and, very slowly, moved it around the room. She couldn't put her sight on anything for more than a few seconds at a time without feeling the sickness from before, but she could make out that the room was some sort of altar at one point, like something the ancient mammals would use when they still believed in savage Gods. She froze when her flashlight caught something behind Patch, something carved into the back wall behind the old altar.

It was a face, at least, it looked like a face, like a primate, but no primate she had ever seen in her life. The thing had smooth features and eyes that pierced her soul, a disturbing feeling that shook Cassandra to her core. The thing had another notable feature as well, twisting tendrils coming off of its face and coiling in all directions, forming the swirling details of the back wall. 

The longer she stared at it, the colder she felt, she could feel the wall draining her warmth and making her weak. She started to wobble and stumble when Patch finally stood up and snapped her fingers in Cassandra's face.

"Helloooo? Earth to Cass, time to go."

"Huh? What?"

Patch held her friend and helped her back into the tunnel. The second they exited the strange place and went back to the old floodgates Cassandra's anxiety and sickness finally started to lessen.

"You must've seen something real cool Cass, you were spacing out the entire time we were in there. Usually I only take like an hour."

"I...I took longer?"

"You were out for like three hours at least, I had to eat the snacks myself."

A close examination of cheese dust on Patch's paw confirmed that she had in fact gotten into the snacks, but how did Cassandra miss this? She was staring at Patch in front of that thing the entire time. 

"Why didn't you...?"

"You were getting inspired Cass, I don't wanna take that experience from you."

The rest of the journey back was silent and uneventful, Cassandra slowly felt the strength return to her body as the duo reached the little entrance at the end of the pipe and stood up once they got outside. It was dark now.

"Alright then, I'm gonna head home Cass. You okay to get home yourself? I think the water must've given you a little cold."

Cassandra nodded quietly.

"Yeah I'm good, you're probably right."

She waved goodbye to Patch as she walked back to the station and took the late car back to her apartment building, a massive feeling of relief washing over her as she got far away from the tunnels beneath the Nocturnal District. 

That night she had the same nightmares she had the first time she saw Patch's art, the same twisted figures and colours that seemed to stab into her psyche and hit that primal nerve she didn't even know she had, she woke up in a cold sweat when she heard a knock on her door.

It was morning.

"J-Just a minute!"

She shook herself and got dressed, walking to the door and opening it to reveal a postman. 

"Hey, are you uh, "Cass"?"

Cassandra lifted an eyebrow.

"Uh yeah...?"

"Ms. Houston from Foxy Photos wanted me to send this to you, said it was important."

Cassandra took the package and signed it off, closing the door and opening it at her small table. Inside were two sheets of paper, a letter and what she assumed was the sketch Patch had made of her last night.

"Hey Cass, really busy today so I can't give you this myself, so I had Charlie bring it over early. Next time I go for inspiration I'll take you somewhere even better."

She held her head and groaned a little bit, putting away the letter and looking at the sketch.

She felt her entire body grow cold.

The sketch was of her of course, standing and staring right at the viewer, her eyes focused dead ahead and a look of terror on her face, as if she was begging for help but couldn't speak.

Behind her, stood a tall figure with a moldy, messy robe, the same smooth face with tendrils streaming down and coiling on the floor behind her.

Its hand, with horrible long bony fingers was on her shoulder.


End file.
